Agroinsurance

UK - "Cabbage moths" destroying Brussels sprouts crops

Children may want to thank moths this Christmas. An infestation of the so called cabbage moth is ruining crops of Brussels sprouts. However, this is not good news for farmers in the affected area. Supplies of the vegetable are running low and several farmers have had their crops completely decimated. It is feared the insects have arrived in large numbers which could cause further trouble for growers this season. "For this much damage to be caused they must have arrived in large numbers and these farmers appear to have been very unfortunate and unlucky," Charlie Gallichan, of Woodside Farms in Jersey, said. Source - telegraph.co.uk

India - Karnataka’s rabi crop losses estimated to be around Rs. 10,000 cr

Even as Karnataka is yet to get get Central aid for taking up relief works including compensation towards crop losses due to the failure of south-east monsoon, the loss due to the failure of north-east monsoon has been estimated to be around Rs. 10,000 crore. Revenue Minister Kagodu Thimmappa told reporters here on Monday that crops on eight to 10 lakh acres of land had wilted during the rabi season. The State would submit a memorandum to the Centre sometime in January or February seeking aid to compensate for the crop losses during the rabi season. Taking exception to Prime Minister Narendra Modi not giving an appointment to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to convince him about the need to release Central aid at the earliest to take up drought-relief measures, the Minister termed this as an insult to people of the State. Answering a query on delay in completing the survey work of farm lands, the Minister said the situation was expected to improve in about three months from now when the process of recruitment of about 1,600 surveyors would be completed. Source - http://www.thehindu.com

India - Will ensure that crop insurance covers entire loss

“We will ensure that crop insurance is not merely a relief but it covers the entire loss due to destruction of crops,” said rural development minister Gopal Bhargava at a programme organised here to disburse insurance claims amounts to farmers. The audience also watched live the CM addressing a similar programme at Sehore. The programme was organised at Bittan Market Dussehra Maidan on the second day of the International Agri and Horticulture Technology Expo. Around 15,000 farmers persons attended the programme. Bhargava said that a total of more than 20.46 lakh farmers will benefit from the scheme in the state. He also claimed that the state and central governments will bring a new crop insurance scheme providing for 100 per cent compensation to the farmers for their losses. He presented claim documents to more than 50 farmers as token. In total, claims worth Rs 67 crore were disbursed on the occasion. Member of Parliament Alok Sanjar said that the “The farmers of the state can feel relieved. They need not worry about their problems; the CM will”. MLAs Rameshwar Sharma, Vishnu Khatri and district collector Nishant Barwade also addressed the farmers. Automatic milk vending machines Agricultural and horticultural product manufacturing companies, government departments and various local bodies are showcasing advanced farming technologies in the expo. While talking to Free Press the director of the expo, Bharat Baliyan said, “The participant companies are receiving a great response from the visitors. A large variety of products and services, ranging from water pumps, seeds and sowing machines to tractors, organic manure and pesticides to gigantic harvesters are displayed over in 125 stalls.” “The real crowd pullers are ATM-like milk vending machines, manual and automatically operated drip irrigation systems and technologically advanced water pumps.” Source - http://www.freepressjournal.in

Cambodia - Experts Push for Agricultural Insurance Agricultural insurance is being touted as the panacea to protect farmers against plummeting rice prices

Experts are pushing for agricultural insurance to be employed in the near future to help strengthen the agriculture sector, particularly the rice sector with its plummeting prices and limited access to foreign markets. Sok Puthyvuth, president of the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF), said on Friday that Cambodian farmers should have agricultural insurance as a tool to ensure a fair price for their products. The agriculture sector needs insurance in the near future, he said, but issues in the sector need to be addressed prior to implementation. “We need to have this insurance in the future,” he said. “But we don’t know how much an insurance package costs because the price depends on information, production situation and planting know-how. Also we have to check many other aspects to ensure the price is acceptable and can protect those [companies].” The CRF and relevant parties have already discussed the possibility of establishing insurance services for agricultural products. “We have discussed with relevant parties about this, but many risks have been found, so some banks and insurance companies don’t dare step in until they’ve collected enough information and have a clearer understanding,” Mr. Puthyvuth added. “If they provide this insurance now, the price of insurance will be too high and won’t be acceptable.” The push for agricultural insurance comes at the same time the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries is promoting contract farming with the aim of ensuring a price for farmers near market price. According to the ministry, contract farming is a linkage between three parties including farmers or farmer communities, rice millers and provincial authorities. Chandran Nair, CEO of the Hong Kong-based think tank Global Institute for Tomorrow which just completed a two-week study on rice in Cambodia, said it would be better if Cambodia had agricultural insurance. However, he said insuring agricultural products was difficult and advised the implementation of contract farming ahead of insurance. “Of course it is much better but it is not easy at the moment to get insurance companies to provide this,” Mr. Nair said. “But if you do contract farming and say you have 3,000 farmers together, then a large insurance company is willing to sell insurance products.” Related to agricultural insurance, there are NGOs and an insurance company already offering the service to the agriculture and sub-agriculture sectors. Forte Insurance has offered insurance for agricultural products such as rubber, corn, cassava and rice in Battambang province since early 2015. The Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC) introduced micro-insurance to help farmers. Under the scheme, farmers pay an insurance fee at the beginning of the growing season depending on land size and CEDAC provides technical consulting on planting. Insurance fees are returned if crops are damaged by drought or climate change. Source - http://www.khmertimeskh.com

Africa - How satellites and insurance are securing livestock

In many parts of East Africa livestock provide the livelihoods for many herders and pastoralists who, especially with climate change on the rise, are often faced with severe threats from droughts. A particularly bad drought could wipe out most of a herders livestock, leaving them without a source of food or income and with little recourse. It’s a problem that inspired Andrew Mude and his colleagues to launch Index-Based Livestock Insurance, a technology-enabled insurance program to protect herders against the devastating effects of drought. Developed in partnership with International Livestock Research Institute, Cornell University and University of California Davis, IBLI uses data gathered by satellite to create a vegetation index that can be used to track the density of vegetation available to pastoralists. When the available food for livestock falls below an agreed upon threshold, it indicates there is a drought and the IBLI program compensates herders and pastoralists if they suffer a loss. About 15,000 herders have purchased the insurance contracts in Kenya and Ethiopia since its launch in 2010 with about $200,000 paid out on claims thus far. The Kenyan government recently replicated the model and now provides IBLI coverage to about 9,000 households through the Kenya Livestock Insurance Program. Mude was recently presented with the 2016 Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application during the World Food Prize ceremony. He also won the USAID Award for Scientific Excellence from the Board for International Food and Agriculture Development at a separate event in Des Moines, Iowa, in collaboration with his team. But the work is not yet completed. “The research phase continues,” said Mude, during a recent visit to Washington, D.C. The team intends to continue to leverage technology to increase the efficiency of service delivery. Devex sat down with Mude to talk about technology, insurance and his passion for helping secure the livelihoods of rural farmers in East Africa. Here are the highlights of our conversation. How do you explain the concept of insurance and satellites to herders in rural communities? Insurance is a difficult concept across the world. In most places it is mandated — you are forced to have insurance. Explaining what IBLI [is] has been a major challenge. This is a population that hasn't had the experience of insurance much less alone understanding what satellite technology is. But I think we have a ready population here just because they have experienced a lot of loss. Livestock is fundamental to their lifestyle and livelihood. So they were receptive to any idea that would help them reduce the losses that they face. A big part of what we have to do is thinking of innovative ways that we could explain satellite insurance in a way that makes sure that they understand the features. What are some of the other persistent challenges involved in your work? One of the challenges we face is that the satellite tells you the amount of forage on the ground but it doesn’t really tell you how good that green is. Some plants have a lot more nutrients for certain types of livestock. However, the satellite itself doesn’t tell you that. There is a lot of work we are doing [with] crowdsourcing. We are teaching pastoralist themselves to take pictures of the graze land and submit [them]. In the space of about four to five months, they have submitted about 120,000 photos. Working in collaboration with Cornell University’s Institute of Computation Sustainability, we are using big data and other algorithms to develop a filter for the data so that we can get a better sense of how good the green we are seeing is in terms of nutrients. How has the increase in mobile phone penetration in Africa impacted your work? The cost of delivery sales was really high when we started … the point of sales device that an agent required to interact at the point of transaction cost about $12,500. We worked with insurance companies to develop a mobile sales application platform, which is now free. This allows them [to go] from having [less than] 50 agents in an area, to [having] over 350. That increases access for pastoralists. Individuals who are able to interact with mobile phones and are digitally savvy can start using that for other things such as crowdsourcing, disease surveillance, etc. International organizations are scaling up efforts to develop technological solutions for various development challenges. How can African leaders and local NGOs become active partners in the process and encourage more research-based projects on the continent? What we need more of is research or science that is demand-driven. Understand what the key challenges are and key opportunities so that you can orient your research on problems for which once you find the solution you find the ready market. This work is an example of that. We started off by providing livestock life insurance — asset replacement — and we moved on to provide livestock health insurance — asset protection. That came about as a result of closeness with communities. The insurance companies [and] the NGOs that we work with are there on the ground. Partnerships are so central. Not just with clients — whether it is with the farmer or the livestock herder in the case of an agricultural program — but also with the suite of organizations needed to deliver across the value chain. It is really important to engage closely with them and have a strong rigorous research capacity within the team so that when you have understood the key challenges and the key opportunities, you will have a sense of the key cutting edge innovation you can research. What motivates you to keep going? I like to consider myself as passionate about the work that I do and oriented towards finding solutions that would leverage technology. I hope that my colleagues would consider me not just passionate but dependable and excited about the work that we do. There are times that perhaps [the] provision of insurance is not a low hanging fruit. When I started it had great promise but we needed to do the work to show that it could actually be sustainable at a large scale. What drives me is solving some of these challenges. Source - https://www.devex.com

Italy - Weird year for Sicilian citrus fruit

"Citrus fruit production this year is quite low, especially for oranges. Producers not only had to deal with the CTV-Citrus Tristeza Virus, but also with a whole lot of other factors - mild temperatures during the past winters, lower blossoming, wider yield alternance. In addition, it rained a lot in September," reports Corrado Vigo, agronomist and President of the Ordine dei Dottori Agronomi e dei Dottori Forestali in Catania. For what concerns the rain/drought, Vigo explains that "I have noticed these events are cyclical, they occur every 10-11 years. What is weird is that this cycle coincides with the Sun cycle. We are expecting some more rain in December as well." In addition to the weather conditions, there is a series of fungi, pathogens and Phytophthorathat, with the temperatures registered so far, spread. "For example, the persistent rain in September triggered Phytophthora citrophthora, which led to a loss of fruit. In addition, in October, there was a late attack of Ceratitis capitata". There are a lot of drops of yet unripe oranges as well as a lot of mouldy fruit on the trees. The areas of Scordia, Lentini, Palagonia and Mineo were affected by dessicating wind, which damaged both the fruit and the leaves. "We already expected a drop in volumes, but now they will be even lower." Varietal innovation "There are very few innovative varieties. Producers are looking to replace the trees (especially because of the Citrus Tristeza Virus), but costs are high. The last PSR call for bids, for example, ended in 2012 and the new one hasn't opened yet. If we consider that, last year, oranges sold at 4 cents, we can see how it might be difficult to end the year positively, let alone make investments." We must also keep in mind that orchard response times are slow. "We are talking about seven/eight years for a full production cycle. Another problem is the availability of plants. In Sicily, we generate around 1.5/2 million plants. To reconvert the areas affected, 24-25 million plants are needed and it would take 12-13 years." Competition"Just like every year, our citrus fruit is available on the market as well as oranges from Spain and grapefruit from Israel, for example." "I keep thinking about the French, who only buy produce made in France before anything else. Only then do they look for something foreign. In Italy, it seems as if we welcome foreign produce." Source - http://www.freshplaza.com

Spain - Rainfall causes damage to horticultural sector

The weather is now starting to improve after almost ten days in a row of rainfall and bad weather which have given no relief to most Valencian growers. They have been most affected by the storm, especially those specialising in citrus and kakis. Berry plantations in Huelva and open field vegetables in Murcia have also been hit. Multimillion losses for citrus growers in Valencia and Castellon The rains have persisted for about ten days in Valencia and Castellon, bringing the harvesting tasks to a halt and interrupting the fruit handling in the packing plants. The fruit cannot be harvested and stored in chambers when it is wet because it increases the chance of rotting. For this reason, almost all stocks that were available until now have already been sold. According to the agricultural organizations AVA and La Unió, the rains have already significantly damaged the skin of the mandarin varieties that have yet to be harvested, especially the Clemenules, whose season is currently in full swing, with about 70% of the production in Castellon and Valencia still to be harvested. The losses are expected to amount to over 100 million Euro, so they are asking for tax breaks and promotional campaigns in order to encourage consumption. For the later varieties, however, these rains will have an influence on the fruit's growth, given that calibres have been rather small due to the prolonged drought. The rains have ceased in Valencia and Castellon and wind gusts could help prevent the situation from getting worse in the coming days because of the excess moisture. Kakis have also been affected and there will be losses in production, although to a lesser extent, since their skin is more resistant than the citrus fruits. Those kaki fields where the proper treatments to combat excess moisture haven't been used will suffer the consequences the most. Losses in the grapes for New Year's Eve in Alicante The famous bagged Aledo grapes for New Year's Eve from the Vinalopó Valley are now in season and, therefore, the constant rainfall has also taken a toll on their quality. It is expected that there will be a reduction of the total volumes and higher handling costs. The sector will surely have to import more grapes from Brazil. The rains will delay the strawberry campaign in Huelva The rains have been accompanied by tornadoes in very specific cases and affected about 30 hectares of crops in Palos de La Frontera and Moguer, causing serious damage to infrastructures. The rains have also caused damage in the areas of Lepe and Cartaya, mainly to strawberry crops, flooding greenhouses and causing erosion damage in the fields which is already being repaired. In some plots of these areas the damage reaches 50%; however, the vast majority of strawberry farms are fortunately insured. In general terms, fruit losses caused by rainfall are not significant for the sector, as the strawberry harvest has not yet started in most production areas; however, the lack of light during these cloudy days, accompanied by lower temperatures, will result in the harvest being delayed by around 10 days. Murcia interrupts the lettuce harvesting tasks The rains this week and the forecast of more rainfall for the next few days add to the production gap that is expected in the coming weeks ahead of Christmas, given the considerable advance of the harvests. Excessive rainfall prevents the crops from developing normally and the harvest from being carried out at the usual pace, which will have an impact on the volumes available for these weeks. Source - http://www.freshplaza.com

India - Amended crop insurance scheme a boon for grape growers

The amended weather-based crop insurance scheme introduced this year by the government has come as a saviour for grape farmers of the State, mainly of Vijayapura district which produces 50 per cent of the grapes in Karnataka. Grape farmers been incurring losses owing to adverse natural conditions and have not been receiving adequate crop insurance for years. The new norms are expected to provide considerable relief to them if their crop is damaged because of the vagaries of nature. According to the amendment, the insurance company would consider the gram panchayat as a base area for assessing the damage, not the taluk. Abhaykumar Nandrekar, State president of the Grape Growers' Association, told The Hindu that in the past, the damage was assessed at the taluk level and some affected areas would be randomly selected for this. “Over the years, the climatic conditions have drastically changed. Today, if hailstones fall in one gram panchayat limit, it may not necessarily fall in the neighbouring GP. If the taluk is considered as a cluster for damage assessment, officials will not get a precise figure of loss as some parts may have affected extensively and others not so much. If the GP is treated as a cluster, the area of assessment reduces and we will get a correct figure [of extent of damage]. This in turn helps farmers get more as insurance," he said. Another advantage of the scheme is that from this year farmers will have to pay only a 5 per cent premium, with the State and the Union governments bearing the remaining amount. Mr. Nandrekar said that till last year, grape farmers had to pay nearly Rs. 25,000 an acre as insurance, but from this year it will be around Rs. 9,000 a hectare (i.e.: 2.47 acres). He said that of the 21,000 hectares in the State under grape cultivation, over 10,000 hectares of land is in Vijayapura. “We hope the new scheme will help grape farmers who have had to grapple with natural calamities for years in the drought-prone north Karnataka region," he said. Source - http://www.thehindu.com

India - Banks asked to disburse crop insurance claims within 2 weeks

The State Government has asked the district central cooperative banks (DCCBs) and commercial banks to credit the crop insurance claims of farmers to their savings bank account within two weeks. Altogether 11.61 lakh farmers across the State will get insurance claims to the tune of Rs 1,776 crore which has been credited to DCCBs and commercial banks concerned. Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi reviewed the progress of disbursement with district collectors through video conferencing on Friday. An anount of Rs 880 crore has been credited to account of the farmers till yesterday. The Chief Secretary clarified that since the agricultural loan term is up to the month of March, no bank should adjust the insurance money against the loan of current year. The total insurance claims of non-defaulter loanee farmers should be disbursed 100 percent. However, the crop insurance money of those loanee farmers who have defaulted in clearing their past loans will be adjusted. He asked the banks to ensure 100 percent disbursement within the next 15 days. Agriculture and Cooperation Secretary Manoj Ahuja appraised that this insurance claim is being given against kharif crop loss of 2015 and around 11.61 lakh farmers would get the benefit. The Chief Secretary directed the district collectors to keep close watch and ensure 100 percent disbursement of the compensation money to account of the farmers. The collectors to review the situation on daily basis with commercial and cooperative banks and updated the Cooperation Secretary through WhatsAap messages. Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan advised the banks to open savings accounts of the loanee farmers wherever necessary within 2 to 3 days and credit the insurance money to their savings account. The Collectors were also asked to ensure disbursement of draught assistance announced by the state government for 2015 Kharif paddy. Around Rs 83 crore will be distributed to draught affected farmers in 24 districts at the rate of Rs 100 per quintal of paddy. Special Relief Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Mohapatra present in the video conference appraised that the entire money has been placed with the Secretary, Central Cooperative Bank. The state government has received reports that some farmers of a Western Odisha district have paid premium for the same land they have raised paddy crops in different banks. Banks have been asked to disburse their insurance claims first and take suitable action against such farmers thereafter. The delay in disbursement of insurance claims was due to discrepancies in the crop cutting reports by the Agriculture and Revenue departments. Source - http://www.newindianexpress.com

Australia - Dusty harvest sparks fire concern

Western Australian farmers are concerned an abnormally dusty crop will increase the risk of header fires this harvest. Only two weeks into harvest in the Great Southern, the Wagin shire has experienced six fires, four of which were started through a header. This compares to an average of two per season on other years, according to East Wagin farmer Sam West. Mr West said although he was not sure if the header fires were caused specifically from dust, he was concerned conditions were going to make matters worse. "I imagine it's going to cause a bit more fire risk because it's flammable, and if it gets on hot parts of the engine it could be a problem," he said. "So we have started blowing the header down twice a day." Mr West said although it took extra time, it was worth being more cautious. Fires not limited to Wagin shire Mr West said he had attended four of the six fires in his region. "It gets you a little bit nervous and on edge at times," he said. "There was one last week where we got home, spent 30 minutes at home and then got another call-out." [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="700"] PHOTO: A blackened header sits in front of a fire after it caught alight during harvest. (Supplied: Farmac and MC)[/caption] The header fires are not constrained to the Wagin shire. On Facebook, a number of farmers told tales of header fires in Pingelly, Quairading, Bruce Rock and Bolgart, in the state's Great Southern and Central Wheatbelt region. Mr West said all fires in the Wagin region had been contained fairly quickly, with the worst fire burning through about 100 hectares. 'Dustiest harvest ever' In the Great Southern region, farmers have described this harvest as the dustiest they have ever seen. Narrogin farmer Ashley Weise said at times it was even difficult to see where he was driving. "There's this very fine dust coming out of the back of the header, which I haven't really seen before," he said. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="700"] PHOTO: Narrogin farmer Ashley Weise says the dust is like nothing he has ever seen before. (Supplied: Ashley Weise)[/caption] "I know oats dust is itchy enough, but this is really quite unusual and I'm not too sure what's causing it." Mr Weise described the paddock as "an absolute cloud of dust". "The other day I took a photo where I couldn't actually see the end of my comb with the wind coming from behind the header," he said. While it is not clear what is causing the dust, farmers and agronomists have guessed the frost event earlier in the year may have contributed. Another theory that has been flagged by agronomist David Stead on Twitter, alongside other farmers, is that it could be related to bigger canopies and a cool finish. Source - http://www.abc.net.au

09.12.2016

USA - Developer wants robotic apple picker in orchards in 2018

The developer of a robotic apple picker says his goal is to have it ready for commercial use in orchards in the fall of 2018. “It will work at a productivity rate that will be lower cost than human picking,” Dan Steere, CEO of Abundant Robotics of Hayward, Calif., told attendees at the Washington State Tree Fruit Association annual meeting, Dec. 6. That was his response when asked how many bins of apples per day the picker can pick. Steere said he didn’t want to reveal that yet, nor an estimated price per unit. However, he said it will be practical and affordable within the next 10 years. A robot able to pick apples fast enough and gently enough to be economically viable could be a huge boost to the apple industry in labor savings and in meeting labor shortages. Steere and his Abundant Robotics co-founders, Curt Salisbury and Michael Eriksen, are robotic software and hardware engineers, developing a robotic harvester with a $550,000 grant from the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission in Wenatchee and funding from SRI International in Menlo Park. Abundant Robotics is working with its third prototype in 18 months with improvements made after fall harvest testing in Central Washington and spring harvest testing in the Southern Hemisphere, Steere said. Here’s how it works: A robotic arm and vacuum tube, guided by computer aided by cameras and sensors, detects apples and sucks them off trees at one apple per second and delivers them into bins. Steere showed a video that he said was real-time. He said the picker detects 95 percent of apples and isn’t bothered by leaves or new growth but is obstructed by wood such as limbs. Leaves were stripped from part of a tree in one test, leaving 21 apples. Six of the 21 were not detected because of limbs, he said. The system isn’t built to work on large old trees, but new high-density spindle or V-trellis plantings where the plane of the fruiting wall is 2 to 3 feet in depth. “We think we’re good at hardware and software. That’s what we know. We’re not experts on (tree) canopies, so we’ve been trying to talk to growers,” Steere said. He said he’s eager to hear from a cross section of growers and that there are probably multiple best canopies. The robot was tested this fall in several varieties and orchards with the fruit graded on packing lines. Gala ran at 5.3 percent cuts, punctures and bruises, just slightly above 4 percent of conventional hand picking, Steere said. Granny Smith was high at over 20 percent and Fuji also at 16, but Steere said he thinks he knows ho the damage occurred and how to bring it down. “We’re definitely on a path to production rather than figuring out from a blank page of R&D (research and development) if it’s possible or not,” he said. The key, he said, is unobstructed access to the apple. He said he’s staying focused on apples and not yet thinking of pears or cherries. Source - http://www.capitalpress.com

Vietnam - Elephants destroy crops

In certain parts of Vietnam farmers are having to deal with a peculiar pest, much larger than the usual a farmer has to deal with. According to the Quick-reaction Task Force in the Phu Ly commune of Vinh Cuu district, from January to April 2016, wild elephants entered residential quarters 69 times and caused 71 cases of crop damage. They damaged 4.7 hectares of cassava, 2.1 hectares of sugarcane and 22 tons of fruits. Hoang Thi Thuy from Phu Ly commune complained that elephants ‘visited’ her house several times. They not only ate mango, but damaged 20 10-year-old trees that had brought a stable income. Thuy said that each mango tree produces 100 kilos of fruit. With the average price of VND5,000 per kilo, Thuy can earn VND500,000 each crop. As such, Thuy loses about VND10 million a year, the main source of income of her family. In 2008-2013, the people’s committees of Vinh Cuu and Dinh Quan districts had to spend VND12 billion to support people in the areas attacked by elephants. Source - english.vietnamnet.vn

USA - Grain indemnity voting period coming to a close

Friday is the last day for farmers to cast ballots in Texas' grain indemnity fund referendum, a measure that would use fees to provide additional crop insurance for some producers. This is the second time such a referendum has been put to a vote in the state - in 2012, a similar measure was presented to voters but did not pass. A member of the referendum's governing board previously said that misinformation was to blame. If enacted, the referendum would create a fund to repay producers of some commodities in the event of grain buyer failure, such as bankruptcy or legal trouble. However, the insurance protection would come at an additional cost to corn, sorghum, wheat and soybean farmers, who would pay to grain elevators fees that later would be forwarded to the state. Only producers who have grown those crops in the past three years may vote. Experts say the impetus for the measure is high-profile grain elevator failures, such as an incident in which a Sherman commodity buyer went belly-up in 2009. But cash-strapped farmers may have reservations about voting for the measure; earlier this year, wheat crops specifically sold for about $2 below the cost of production, and farmers may err on the side of riskier business deals to avoid an additional insurance fee. Voting on the referendum began Monday and will be concluded Friday. Ballots may be cast at the Texas A&M AgriLIfe Extension Office in Wichita Falls, 600 E. Scott St. Source - http://www.timesrecordnews.com

Spain - Rainfall causes damage to Vinalopo grapes

The rainfall recorded in recent days (and weeks) in the region of Medio Vinalopó is proving very beneficial for its agriculture after the severe drought it had been suffering for years. However, according to the agricultural union La Unió de Llauradors, the abundance and persistence of rainfall is also taking a "very negative toll" on table grape crops in Vinalopó, where the harvest of the Aledo variety, the one eaten in Spain as part of the New Year's Eve celebrations, is currently underway. The grapes are starting to crack due to an overexposure to moisture and many kilos will be lost, although those in charge of La Unió say it is still too early to evaluate the extent of the damage. This will add to the production costs for the growers, who will have to clean the grapes, which will entail an increase in the handling and packaging costs of the most precious fruit of Vinalopó. Given this situation, it has been decided to organise a meeting next Monday in order to address the crisis. The decision has been made by the Asaja union, the Regulatory Board of the PDO Vinalopó Bagged Table Grape and the Federation of Exporters. All parties involved have been invited to this unprecedented meeting, including irrigation communities. To all this, and as previously announced, it should be added that the table grape harvest will suffer a 25% reduction this campaign because of the impact of the prolonged drought in the vineyards; a paradoxical circumstance in these weeks of continuous rains. The loss in volume has been estimated at about five million kilos, so the total Aledo production is expected to drop from the 22,000,000 kilos of the previous season to 17,000,000 kilos in the current campaign. Source - diarioinformacion.com

Philippines - 6 Luzon LGUs awarded for climate change adaptation programs

Ten local government units (LGUs) received a maiden Climate-Adaptive and Disaster-Resilient (CLAD) Awards for cities and municipalities for their exemplary programs to mitigate the impact of climate change. The CLAD Awards is a project of the Climate Change Commission (CCC) as conceptualized with the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and Senator Loren Legarda, UNISDR Global Champion for Resilience. The winning LGUs, which were awarded during the Climate Change Consciousness Week concluding program on November 25, were Canaman, Camarines Sur; Carmona, Cavite; Dumangas, Iloilo; Hinatuan, Surigao del Sur; Legazpi City, Albay; Malolos, Bulacan; New Lucena, Iloilo; Palompon, Leyte; Sorsogon City, Sorsogon; and Tublay, Benguet. Each awardee was given a plaque and cash prize of P500,000. Legarda lauded the 10 winners of the inaugural CLAD awards as she urged other LGUs to adopt and replicate their best practices in order to strengthen community resilience to disasters and climate change. She cited Canaman’s Crop Insurance Program, which helps restore the livelihood of farmers affected by disasters by providing crop insurance; and the Farmers Field School, which provides farmers with knowledge on climate change impacts and adaptation such as storm surge and drought, as well as practical hands-on training on seed selection, water management, among others. The town of Tublay, Benguet was awarded for its Carbon Stock and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Sequestration Enhancement, as well as its coffee-based agroforestation program, which empowers the community to participate in environmental conservation, climate change adaptation and disaster mitigation initiatives while gaining economic benefits from it. Legazpi City, Albay also made it to the top 10 for its efforts in establishing organic gardens and planting of mangrove and fruit-bearing trees. The mangroves serve as buffers or coastal defense from the effects of storm surge and tsunami while providing a rich habitat for marine life and sequestering carbon effectively. Malolos, Bulacan was awarded for its outstanding psychological program which involves the conduct of traumatic and/or psychological debriefing for evacuees and victims of disasters. Sorsogon, Sorsogon has been recognized for its Climate-Resiliency Field School where farmers and fisherfolks undergo actual practice on new farming technologies adaptable to climate change. Another noteworthy project of this municipality is their reforestation (mangrove and upland) project which aims to minimize soil erosion and prevent storm surge in mangrove areas. Carmona, Cavite was awarded for its Solid Waste Management and 3Rs Program (reduce, reuse, recycle) and installation of LED lights in the municipality, an initiative that not only saves electricity but also lessens greenhouse gas emissions. Source - http://news.mb.com.ph